#1

Ability to encrypt text.

20 Likes
Vault encryption / decryption
How to encrypt individual notes from your vault
Root folder - Vault folder & Encryption
#2

Moved to Feature Requests, as I assume that’s what this is.

And I think I like the idea. Do you mind clarifying what you’re looking for, though?

1 Like
#3

may be create something like .secrets to have encrypted files stored in there using AES encryption with the desired password. To access the vault and edit the file - one will have to enter the password. Once the file is closed it is encrypted again.

4 Likes
#4

Perhaps ‘encrypt’ is not the correct technical term to express what I had in mind.

I was thinking of simply being able to select text or part of a note (such as a sentence, a paragraph) and make it ‘unreadable’ unless one clicks on it and enters a password.

I was thinking more in terms of privacy (for example: when working around others), and not necessarily in terms of data security.

6 Likes
#5

I would also like something like this, or even the ability to password protect a folder within the vault. In my case, this would be for personal journaling. At the moment I know it is possible to keep this in a separate vault (or a separate application), but I guess I like the philosophy of having everything in a single vault.

2 Likes
#6
  1. I think it is quite easy to encrypt and decrypt the text files
  2. After opening the vault user should type password
  3. After password is matching the text files should be decrypted
  4. If somebody open the text file in any text editor it should be just garbage character inside
#7

Are there any plans to implement this feature in the near future?

If not, Is there any good external tool available for encrypting text files?

Currently stuck with Joplin for all my private encrypted notes. Would love to migrate those to Obsidian if this feature is implemented.

#8

Many ways to encrypt a vault.
Individual files would be much more complicated because Obsidian’s functions (search,linking,graph) require all files in the vault to be read.

#9

What would be the best way to encrypt a vault?

1 Like
#10

I don’t know about best, but one of the simplest is using a zip utility. Which leaves the vault portable.

Most OSs have the ability to encrypt folders. That’s pretty simple and built-in.

#11

Something like https://cryptdown.eu/ would be sweet as a plug-in that prompts you for the password and then encrypts/decrypts a note directly in Obsidian’s edit mode.

4 Likes
#12

Any alternatives to cryptodown ?

Would love to see built-in vault encryption, a useful feature so that a vault may be hosted on a cloud drive, but is only viewable by the owner, preventing bots and curious eyes from trawling through personal data.

1 Like
#13

Am also keenly awaiting encrypted vaults within Obsidian.

1 Like
#14

+1

Selective note encryption is a key missing feature.

#15

I’m missing it for the exact same reason.

#16

it could be that encrypted files are simply ignored, similar to hidden or unmounted partitions under Windows or Linux, etc.

#17

I’ve had a good experience with encrypting specific folders of my vault (or, an entire vault) using Boxcryptor. A pin is requested at startup, and if I fail to provide it that folder doesn’t appear when I open Obsidian as all the .md files are encrypted into gibberish (with a different extension).

3 Likes
#18

@icebear Would you mind explaining a bit more your process?
For example, is the pin requested when you open Obsidian or when the computer starts? What is the “different extension”?

#19

I need to launch Boxcryptor and enter the pin before launching Obsidian. Otherwise, Obsidian can’t find the vault at all. You can set up Boxcryptor to launch at start if you like.

Boxcryptor changes all file extensions to a different one (.ch?) while they are are encrypted. If you force them to open with Notepad you’ll just see encrypted gibberish. Once you enter the PIN in Boxcryptor they’ll open as proper .md files.

Edit: given the base functionality (as I use it) is free, I suggest downloading it and trying it out with a test vault, which is what I did at first.

#20

Would GPG style encryption work here? Maybe something like how https://www.passwordstore.org works?